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For those wondering what will happen to the killer or killers if caught, here's what happened a few years back:

During the past two years, five of the approximately 100 Whooping Cranes in the Eastern population have been illegally shot and killed. One of the dead cranes was the female known as "First Mom". In 2006, she and her mate were the first eastern captive raised and released Whoopers to successfully raise a chick to adulthood in the wild. This was a particular blow to that population because whoopers in the East do not yet have an established successful breeding situation. On March 30, 2011, Wade Bennett, 18, of Cayuga, Indiana and an unnamed juvenile pled guilty to killing First Mom. After killing the crane, the juvenile had posed holding up its body. Bennett and the juvenile were sentenced to a $1 fine, probation, and court fees of about $500, a penalty which was denounced by various conservation organizations as being too light. The prosecuting attorney has estimated that the cost of raising and introducing to the wild one Whooping Crane could be as much as $100,000. (from Wikipedia, sourced)

tl;dr A $1 fine + court fees & probation to cover killing an endangered species that cost $100,000 to reintroduce into the wild.